An Autist Reviews: Goodbye Piccadilly (Torchwood - The Monthly Range 22)

*All Reviews Are Spoiler-Free Aside From Any Spoiler Sections*

Welcome to 1950s Soho, brothels and bars fill every street, the gay population is thriving in the grungiest places imaginable, and Nortan Folgate is suspected of being a double agent. Luckily for Norton, he gets the assistance of a Torchwood assessor in proving his innocence, and he’s chosen Sergeant Andy Davidson, who now has an alien message burning him up from the inside. It’s a mad dash through the grungy streets of Soho as Fat Kim, the biggest gang boss in Soho, and her goons try to hunt Andy and Norton down and a larger conspiracy unfolds around them.

“It’s all velvet and lies, dirty old men and unhappy women.”

God this story is so gay and so funny. James Goss, once again, proves his prowess at writing an emotional and yet batshit crazy gay comedy. Every other line is a quip, every now and then you get a deep examination of Norton or Soho as a whole. The biggest problem with this story is that it’s very repetitive, moving from place to place, talking, getting in trouble, and then leaving, but James Goss makes it really fun and enticing the entire time. Also, the Vicar’s relationship to Norton is an odd one, that I'm not sure about, and a certain team of assassins mentioned never gets used, which really is a wasted opportunity. It also should be said that some of the exposition is overly direct and that distance isn’t always factored into how quick some scenes move. Once again the relationship between Norton and Andy is hilariously camp despite the horrors surrounding them, and the way James handles the problems of the past, specifically with being gay, is masterful. Fat Kim is delightfully evil, the Vicar too, and Alejandro and Alexis were both, despite only being around for a while, hilarious as I'll get out! This story focuses heavily on the humor, and while it makes it a joy to listen to, the actual story does suffer because of it.

Norton and Andy are brilliant. I can’t really think of a single bad line between the two of them and their chemistry is delightful as per usual. The bad guys are brilliant, both the Vicar and Fat Kim are very camp and Kim especially is very cruel. The Vicar does, near the end, have some less than brilliant lines. The side characters are somehow the best and the worst characters in the entire story. They are chewing the scenery, Alejandro and Alexis and SO GAY that they put me in knots, Cheggers and the bartender are brilliant, and the folks at the brothels are just fabulous, except for, perhaps, the old man at the front desk of the last one. There are some iffy lines and less-than-great acting decisions.

“Ta and Da.”

OOOOOOH BOY. This is gonna be controversial… The effects of this story are either perfect or they might as well be non-existent. The voice effects are the absolute worst, because they just don’t care about distance, making it very hard to judge how far people are moving and it leads to a major plot hole near the end. The alien voice effects, though, are really good, but basically, everything else is, while a decent effect, horribly implemented. The action effects are really just flat-out bad or great. The rattling of a chain, the setting down of a cup of coffee, the firing of a laser, and so on are all brilliant, but everything else is utterly horrible. A machine rises out of the ground and there is next to no effect, Norton and Andy climb down a damn fire escape and there is no way to tell, and god forbid you want to hear Andy or Norton pick something up, because I don’t think there is a single effect for that in the ENTIRE audio drama, and A LOT of things get picked up. Now, onto the brilliant stuff. The music is perfectly fitting for the time period it’s set in. Lots of swingy songs, lots of eerie songs, lots of music you’d expect out of a 50’s buddy cop film! It’s perfect! The background effects are also amazing, if not rather impressionistic, but hey, I’m not gonna complain about that for the backgrounds! I can still tell where everyone is, except for the odd scene, but in those, it’s not the background effects’ fault. The transitions are also on point, whether they’re slow or fast, they’re fabulous, especially when they’re musical transitions! Though, the occasional one is a little fast for my liking.

The replay value is, unsurprisingly, rather high. I love this story, it’s such a fun and camp story to listen to when I just want to enjoy myself without really having to think, even if the story is rather lacking at times. There is also the odd line that makes more sense upon a second listen. All in all, a lovely story that I love to listen to.

My biggest complaints with this audio drama come from the lacking story and the rarely present or effective effects. Everything else, if you ask me, is basically top tier. A little more structure with a little more purpose and less repetitiveness and the story would be damn near perfect. A few more months for the effects person to actually put in some good effects and those would be flawless. Still, putting that aside, the audio drama is so funny and has such good acting and features such a good duo, how could you not listen to it? It’s easy to overlook the flaws in the end, because James Goss is a god of writing, and this story is yet another example of that. I swear, can this man do ANY wrong???

“Goodbye, Piccadilly! Farewell Leicester Square!”

Total - 9

Original Guesstimate - 8

Plot - 9
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Story - 7
Pacing - 9
Dialogue - 9
Narration - NR
Exposition - 9
Enjoyment - 10
Twist/s - NR
Resolution/s - 7
Ending - 9

Acting - 9
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MC/s - 10
SC/s - 8
BG/s - 9
Narrator/s - NR

Effects - 8
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Music - 10
Voices - 4
Actions - 5
Background - 10
Transitions - 9

Replay - 8
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Re-Enjoyment - 10
New Details - 6

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